Junk food withdrawal is as bad as drug addiction, study states
| Sep 21, 2018, 16:59 IST
Planning to quit junk food and go on a healthy diet? Well, we have some tough news for you. A recent study suggests that doing this can have drastic negative effects. Apparently, cutting off junk food like fries and pizza can make an individual have withdrawal symptoms like those of drug addicts. The symptoms include sadness, irritability, tiredness and cravings.
The research was conducted by the University of Michigan (U-M) and it was found that during the initial two to five days after people quit junk food, the effects peaked. This almost nearly parallels the time course of drug withdrawal symptoms. Ashley Gearhardt, assistant professor said that due to such interventions, most people tend to resort back to eating junk food.
The team asked 231 adults to report what happened when they reduced the amount of highly processed foods they ate in the past year. Although there were previous studies done on animals, the research done on humans wasn't enough to signify what difference the lack of processed foods caused.
All the researchers can agree on one thing and that is that the addictive qualities of tobacco, drugs or alcohol can affect the brain in similar ways. And cutting down of these can result in negative side effects like anxiety, headaches, irritability and depression. The results of how processed foods affect people is yet to be completed. Stay tuned for more updates.
The research was conducted by the University of Michigan (U-M) and it was found that during the initial two to five days after people quit junk food, the effects peaked. This almost nearly parallels the time course of drug withdrawal symptoms. Ashley Gearhardt, assistant professor said that due to such interventions, most people tend to resort back to eating junk food.
The team asked 231 adults to report what happened when they reduced the amount of highly processed foods they ate in the past year. Although there were previous studies done on animals, the research done on humans wasn't enough to signify what difference the lack of processed foods caused.
All the researchers can agree on one thing and that is that the addictive qualities of tobacco, drugs or alcohol can affect the brain in similar ways. And cutting down of these can result in negative side effects like anxiety, headaches, irritability and depression. The results of how processed foods affect people is yet to be completed. Stay tuned for more updates.